The European Union proposes to digitize and unify the health data of all its citizens
The European Commission has launched the idea of creating a digitized European Health Data Space (EHDS) that would come into force in 2025. According to the Vice President of the Commission, Margaritis Schinas, in the “context of a pandemic”, the proposal “ it is revolutionary” and “it will facilitate the treatment of citizens”. Pharmaceutical companies will also have access to the data, supposedly anonymously, to “improve the development of medicines and vaccines”, through the use of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.
The European Commission has launched the idea of creating a digitized European Health Data Space (EHDS) that would come into force in 2025. According to the Vice President of the Commission, Margaritis Schinas, in the “context of a pandemic”, the proposal “ it is revolutionary” and “it will facilitate the treatment of citizens”. Pharmaceutical companies will also have access to the data, supposedly anonymously, to “improve the development of medicines and vaccines”, through the use of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.
This measure has been criticized both for the official use that can be given to the data, by supra-state and pharmaceutical entities, and for the consequences that could derive from leaks and hacks of the same.
The cost of the initiative will range between €700 million and €2.5 billion, although countries will spend another €12 billion to digitize their health systems.
The idea is to unify the health data of all citizens so that they can be consulted by any medical service in any of the 27 countries. The purpose is, according to the commissioner in charge of Health, Stella Kyriakides, “to facilitate treatments and prescriptions regardless of the country you are in, with the information accumulated in all the centers”. Secondly, “it will allow the use of the data for researchers and experts.”
Public institutions and the pharmaceutical industry will have access to large amounts of high-quality health data, crucial for developing treatments, vaccines or medical devices.